HPC Engineer (Contract)

Qarik Overview

Qarik Group, LLC is a technology consulting firm focused on combining senior-level expertise and experience to help clients see further and go faster, solving big business problems.

We have a saying at Qarik that sums up our culture: ‘Greatness grows greatness.’ It reflects how we support each other by sharing expertise, experience and opportunity. One person’s insight smooths the way for another to succeed. And it’s not just about supporting each other. It’s as much about how we help our client's businesses thrive. By using what we collectively know and mashing ideas together, breathtaking things happen. Not least of which is how your career’s journey can go further and faster than you ever imagined possible. So, if you have greatness to give, we've got the perfect place to help it grow.

About Our Work

We work “with” our clients, not "for" them. We embrace agile instead of deliverables and milestones - establish a vision, create theme based roadmap and then execute. We work in the trenches with client's engineers to learn from each other's experiences and capabilities. We frequently have a stake in their success, ensuring that everyone is aiming towards the same goals.

We check badges and egos at the door and bring incredible people together to achieve great outcomes. This allows people to bring their whole person to contribute to, and be part of the team. You should never feel like you have to be somebody else.

Overview of the Role

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Cloud Storage Technical Lead engineer to join our dynamic team, focusing on the development of scalable file storage solutions for cloud based High Performance Computing (HPC) platforms. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in both traditional parallel filesystems and modern cloud-native storage solutions such as S3, ElastiCache and File Cache. You should also have extensive experience with AWS, infrastructure as code, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. 

As a Cloud Storage Technical Lead, you will play a crucial role in designing, building, and maintaining the storage infrastructure that supports our cutting-edge life sciences research initiatives. You will collaborate with computational scientists and other engineers to ensure that our platform is robust, scalable, and capable of handling complex computational workloads. You will also ensure our solutions are implemented securely, with appropriate controls to allow safe storage of sensitive data. You will collaborate with additional cloud platform technical and product leads to ensure your solutions align with other emerging infrastructure capabilities being developed concurrently for the R&D organization. 

Fully remote and offshore candidates are welcome however this role requires working during US west coast standard working hours (9-5pm PST/PDT). 

Key Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain scalable and high performance file storage environments on AWS. 
• Develop and manage infrastructure as code using tools such as Terraform and Ansible.
• Automate deployment pipelines and improve CI/CD processes using GitLab CI/CD.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to understand the computational needs of scientists and translate them into effective platform solutions. 
• Monitor and optimize platform performance, ensuring reliability and scalability.
• Troubleshoot and resolve issues related to infrastructure, deployment, and application performance. 
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior team members. 
• Identify and advance collaboration opportunities with other product teams, such as integration with existing data movement and data catalog solutions.

Required Skills

• AWS: Deep understanding of AWS services and best practices for building scalable, secure, and cost-effective cloud environments. 
• DevOps: Proven experience with DevOps practices, including infrastructure as code (Terraform, Ansible), continuous integration, and continuous deployment (GitLab CI/CD).
• IAM: Prior experience integrating storage with common identity and access management solutions such as Active Directory and IAM Identity Center. 
• Version Control: Proficiency with Git and experience managing code repositories.
• Expert level proficiency with POSIX file system semantics. 
• Proficiency with POSIX I/O profiling for high performance / high throughput workloads
• Expert level proficiency in at least one high performance / parallel filesystem technology such as Weka, Lustre, GPFS, CEPH or JuiceFS. 
• High proficiency with Amazon S3 object storage. 
• High proficiency with Network File System (NFS) semantics and solutions.
• Knowledge of security best practices in cloud environments and experience implementing them.
• Excellent communicator, ability to clearly share architecture plans, designs, risks, and implementation with a variety of stakeholders

Desired Qualifications

• Experience: 7+ years working in engineering, solution architecture, or DevOps, with a track record of successfully delivering complex projects. 
• Problem Solving: Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to troubleshoot complex issues in distributed systems. 
• Communication: Excellent communication skills, with the ability to convey technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. 
• Team Player: Ability to work effectively in a collaborative team environment, as well as independently when required.

Preferred Skills (Nice to have)

• Prior experience with AWS managed services for file storage, such as EFS, FSx for Lustre, or FSx for OpenZFS. 
• Prior experience with at least one POSIX interface solution for S3 object storage, such as S3 Mountpoint, CunoFS, or goofys. 
• Prior experience with cloud data caching solutions such as Amazon ElastiCache or Amazon File Cache.

Qarik offers a competitive and comprehensive employee compensation and benefits package.

Qarik is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status. For further information please contact our [email protected]